Editors don't I.D. crime victim as NJMG developer

On River Street in Hackensack, customers actually line up and wait for a seat at White Manna, where they pay for the privilege of eating mystery meat and other unhealthy food.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Is the deal off between North Jersey Media Group and multimillionaire Fred Daibes for development of 20 acres in Hackensack where The Record prospered for more than 110 years?

A story on the sale of Daibes' luxury St. Moritz high-rise in Edgewater appeared in Friday's Local section (L-3), but there was no mention of whether he still plans to build apartments on the River Street property.

Despite all his wealth, Daibes apparently cut corners on security at the St. Moritz, and was a victim of a home invasion last November.

Four suspects yanked him from bed, broke his ribs and shoulder blade, and made off with nearly $2 million in cash, gold bars and other valuables, according to county prosecutors.

Daibes' luxury and exotic car collection was photographed for Bergen.com in the driveway of the St. Moritz.

The rental building, at 100 Daibes Court, boasts of hotel-like amenities, but its Web site doesn't mention security.

Today's paper

In today's edition of The Record, front-page stories speculating about the whereabouts of a missing jet and the fate of 239 people on board have been replaced by a story on the Jets (A-1).

Would four people killed by fire in a shore motel that was a refuge for Sandy survivors still be alive, if Governor Christie hadn't bungled the distribution of federal aid (A-1)?

Christie's mismanagement of state finances gets gentle treatment in another Page 1 story, which avoids discussing his inflexible stance against taxing the wealthy or raising the low gasoline tax to revive the bankrupt Transportation Trust Fund (A-1).

Local yokels

Today's Local section is heavy on Law & Order news, including a dramatic photo of a Norwood DPW garage fire that injured no one and whose cause eludes the talented local staff (L-6).

The Better Living editors waste their cover today on a half-dozen Jersey bimbos. A seventh bimbo wrote the piece (BL-1).

Silk City's black mayor exposes editors' bias

Today's edition of the weekly Hackensack Chronicle lists seven "dilapidated streets" that will be paved soon, but Prospect Avenue, above, and Euclid Avenue, between Prospect and Summit avenues, aren't among them.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

The Record has had a lot to say about Paterson Mayor Jeffery Jones in news stories and editorials, such as the February report that he will return $17,300 he received for unused vacation days in 2011 and 2012.

But I can't recall the Woodland Park daily every reporting Jones' views on the "causes of inner-city poverty," as the mayor stated in a letter to conservative Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, a potential GOP presidential nominee (L-1).

"Come to Paterson, Congressman Ryan, and I will take you around the streets of one of the poorest cities in New Jersey, and you can meet the families of people who work two and sometimes three jobs to put food on the table and clothes on their children," Jones wrote in his Tuesday letter.

Editors' blind eyes

But there is more in the letter the editors and reporters at The Record seem reluctant to touch, while focusing relentlessly on crime, fires, drug dealing and problems at City Hall:

"Impoverished neighborhoods are not the result of lazy black men, " Jones wrote, "but rather the result of 400 years of slavery, Jim Crow Laws, housing policies and redlining which resulted in the confinement of whole races of people in substandard areas with substandard educational and employment opportunities."

The letter could just as well be addressed to Governor Christie, who has cut the state budget on the backs on the middle and working classes in New Jersey.

Christie also cut state aid to Paterson, Newark and other poor cities, forcing  layoffs of police officers and aggravating crime.

Worst slumlords?

You've read story after story about fires in Paterson's ramshackle multiple dwellings, but where are the reports identifying the city's most notorious slumlords?

Has the paper ever done any serious reporting on redlining by banks in Paterson, Passaic city or North Jersey's wealthy suburbs?

To deliver The Record and Herald News, I imagine North Jersey Media Group exploits some of those people who have to work two or three low-wage jobs to make ends meet.

If Ryan accepts Jones' invitation to come to Paterson, we can only hope The Record's clueless publisher and editors accompany him.

Hey, Editor Marty Gottlieb, you're not in Paris anymore.

More Christie B.S.

Today's paper gives another platform to loud-mouth Christie, the GOP bully whose inner circle carried out political retribution against Democrats who didn't support his reelection last year (A-1 and A-8).

At a town hall meeting in Flemington on Thursday, in answer to a man in the audience, Christie refused to say whether then-Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly broke the law when she and his Port Authority cronies orchestrated George Washington Bridge lane closures last September, causing four days of gridlock in Fort Lee (A-1).

This is news?

The Page 1 story on Bergen County having the highest average property tax bills in the state tells residents nothing they don't already know (A-1).

Shouldn't the paper remind readers that Christie promised to lower property taxes in his 2009 campaign, not praise him for slowing increases?

Hackensack news

Hackensack officials deserve credit for capping unused sick-day payouts at $15,000 on retirement (L-3), but don't residents deserve an explanation for why the city can't afford to repair pockmarked Prospect Avenue, one of the city's premier streets.

Staff Writer Hannan Adely covers City Council meetings, and I'd like to see more stories reporting the fiscal mismanagement of prior administrations allied with the now-deposed Zisa family.

At Tuesday night's meeting, a sweetheart deal the prior City Council made with a towing business was discussed, and Mayor John Labrosse told a resident evictions proceedings are under way.  

A story on the retirement of Teaneck Police Chief Robert Wilson doesn't say how much he is paid (L-2).

Is he one of the chiefs who is making more than Christie's $175,000 a year?

Stars in her eyes

Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung swoons over the lobster-and-fried-egg sandwich ($14) at Cravings Tapas Bistro in Ridgewood, but says the seafood in the $19 paella "was served a little stiff" (BL-14)

Does she mean overcooked or rigor mortis?

A pitcher of sangria was $26? Ouch.

Anyway, who wants to line up and wait for a table, even with a reservation?

Read all about wealthy Ridgewood's 'coin collection'

The Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan. Anything the bi-state agency does to encourage commuters to leave their cars in New Jersey and take mass transit to the city should be commended by The Record, not treated as if the paper is uncovering wrongdoing, as today's Page 1 story suggests.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Editor Marty Gottlieb of The Record, Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza and Staff Writer Chris Harris should apologize for today's Page 1 story on a Ridgewood "coin collector."

Here is why editing matters.

The Record took another story about a municipal employee stealing public funds and decided to make light of it:

Thomas Rica, the village's former public works inspector, pleaded guilty to stealing at least $460,000 "from Ridgewood's coin-collection room" (A-1).

What coin-collection room? Does the village have a coin collection? Why is Rica called a "coin collector" in the first paragraph?

Readers don't learn until the continuation page that the 1.8 million quarters Rica stole came from parking meters (A-6).

The joke is  on readers.

Mass hysteria

I was sorry to see a Page 1 story today reporting the Port Authority may revoke NJ Transit's $1-a-year lease of a North Bergen park-and-ride lot.

The Record's editors are all hot and bothered that NJ Transit was a client of Port Authority Chairman David Samson's private law firm and that he voted to reduce the rent by $906,999 (A-1 and A-6).

Staff Writer Shawn Boburg calls the park-and-ride lot "valuable land," but is there any suggestion that if NJ Transit paid the full rent, the Port Authority would, say, cut tolls on the George Washington Bridge?

And what is the likelihood that NJ Transit might have to raise bus fares, if it has to pay nearly $1 million in rent on the lot every year? 

The Record should see the Port Authority's $1-a-year lease as part of its obligation to promote mass transit in New York and New Jersey.

Jersey Poor

The Garden State is starving for revenue, thanks to Governor Christie's vetoes of a tax surcharge on millionaires and the hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks he's given to businesses, which have created few jobs in return.

But the GOP bully won't say what programs will be cut to realize nearly $700 million in savings from the state's $33 billion budget (A-3).

And another front-page story -- on a contagious disease at the state's trout hatchery -- doesn't explain why New Jersey didn't sell fresh fish to restaurants in all the years the trout weren't decimated by disease (A-1). 

Dissing seniors

During last year's Hackensack City Council campaign, residents told candidates that housing for seniors is sorely needed.

Since they took office on July 1, members of the victorious Citizens for Change slate have ignored those seniors, and promoted the development of hundreds of apartments, despite already crowded schools.

At Tuesday night's meeting, the council voted to sell a 4.3-acre municipal parking lot near Foschini Park to "the highest bidder in a public auction" (L-3).

The city's planning consultant says the property can accommodate 240 to 440 units in two buildings.

Today's edition lists more things Christie opposes

At Tuesday night's Hackensack City Council meeting, the audience included two members of the losing slate in last May's election; fired Municipal Prosecutor Richard Salkin; and sitting next to him, Lynne Hurwitz, who is said to have been the power behind the throne when the Zisa family ran the city that was derided as "Zisaville." Their presence and an occasional attack on the current administration is what is known as sour grapes with a vengeance.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Page 1 of The Record today reports a scramble to enroll for new insurance under the federal Affordable Care Act that Governor Christie did his best to sabotage in New Jersey. 

On A-3, Christie blasted the public employees union for disrupting the dog-and-pony show he put on in hard-hit Union Beach to hide how badly he bungled Sandy aid.

But Rutgers students wanted to know why $4.8 million in federal Sandy aid is going to the developer of a 240-unit high rise in New Brunswick, in exchange for providing 48 affordable units (A-3).

Christie opposes all other affordable housing in New Jersey.

SUV lover

And an editorial today reports the breaking news that "Governor Christie has shown little or no interest in promoting mass transit" (A-12).

That has been evident since the GOP bully took office in January 2010, but this is likely the first time the Woodland Park daily has actually stated it. 

Why is The Record showing such lukewarm support for finding the money to extend electrified light-rail service to Bergen County?

It appears to be part of a pattern of promoting commuting by car and ignoring all of the service problems encountered by NJ Transit bus and rail users.

Today's editorial notes "the crush at many gates inside the Port Authority Bus Terminal during the evening rush is unbearable" (A-12). 

But those strong words are based on angry letters from commuters, not on reporting by the lazy transportation editor and reporter or the clueless, car-centric Road Warrior.

Gridlock at Main and Anderson streets in Hackensack on Tuesday morning.

Anti-light rail stories

In fact, several years ago, Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza guided then-reporter Tom Davis when he wrote at least two anti-light rail takeouts for The Record.

And in 2012 and 2013, The Record reported the exaggerated claims of Tenafly officials who opposed extension of light rail to their town, without bothering to seek rebuttal from NJ Transit.

More road kill

On the front of Local today, the addled Road Warrior foams at the mouth about dark highways.

Of course, the column he should be writing is one condemning poorly lit local streets, such as River Road in North Arlington, where a 74-year-old waitress was struck and killed by a car.

"The driver never saw her," a police captain told The Record (L-1).

When Jerome S. Some was killed crossing Prospect Avenue in Hackensack last October, a sister of the 87-year-old businessman told a reporter a street light was out.

That driver also said she didn't see Some, founder of a uniform company on Main Street.

Today's story about the death of Barbara Gangi, who worked the early shift at the Arlington Diner, says nothing about street lighting or whether River Road and other antiquated local streets in North Jersey are adequately lit.

Seeing red

For another view of Cichowski's  confusing, mistake-ridden Sunday column on red-light cameras, see the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Stopping the facts dead in their tracks